Mexico has always embraced its scrappy spirit. Mexico sees itself as a nation of fighters. So it’s not surprising that this ‘never say die’ mantra has found a home with the London 2012 Mexican Olympic diving team.

In the legendary Mexican beach resort of Acapulco, locals show off their prowess by diving off the famous 35-metre cliffs into the sparkling ocean. In London, the Mexican divers have shown similar risk-averse tactics, taking on extremely high difficulty dives – a literal leap of faith.

These tactics are paying dividends for the Mexican diving squad, which has won three medals so far in diving, with two more divers competing on 11th August. The dynamic duos of German Sánchez/Ivan García and Paola Espinosa/Alejandra Orozco both won silver in their respective 10m platform synchronised diving competitions. And Laura Sánchez was able to bring home a bronze for Mexico in the 3m springboard diving, defeating rivals from Canada, Australia and the United States.

Spectators were shocked when the Mexican men and women competed in their 10m platform synchronised diving. Both duos took some very high-risk dives that produce high scores if executed properly, but can ruin divers’ chances at medalling if not executed perfectly.

But Sánchez/García and Espinosa/Orozco nailed them.

Paola Espinosa, a bronze medallist in Beijing, said:

“Mexico is a country with a lot of diving talent and now the trainers are working together more to help that talent bear fruit. This is the most complete team that Mexico has had for years in the Olympics and with a different mentality – that we want to win.”

And win they have. Currently, Mexico has won the second-most diving medals in London 2012, behind only the dominant Chinese team.